San Francisco—on top of everything else, it is literally a ship burial ground.

Below, you can see where ships are entombed just below the surface, in addition to what the shore of San Francisco used to look like before it was altered.

sfgenealogy

Back in the Gold Rush era in the 1850s, about 62,000 (!) people from across the globe arrived in San Francisco over the period of a year. Once miners got here, many just abandoned their ships and left them to rot in the harbor (cool), or the ships were used as storage spaces. Because so many people came in such a hurry, the city had to be built up and settled quickly, leading to waterfront extension proposals that expanded original shoreline out to what we know as the Embarcadero today.

So those ships that didn’t have anywhere to go where just built on top of. Here’s a zoomed-in version, where you can see how each of the ships are positioned within the Financial District blocks:

sfgenealogy

Here’s another look at the original shoreline versus where it is today that lets you better envision the ships all floating out on the wharves in the old harbor.

San Francisco Diggins

And here’s what it looks like when one of these things are discovered during construction projects.

Smithsonian National Museum of American History

UC Press

Barbary Coast News

Back in 2001, the General Harrison was uncovered during construction downtown. It was built on top of (again) with an 11-story building.

That’s number 21 on the map above. Meaning it’d be about here…

sfgenealogy

At the corner of Battery and Clay.

Google Maps

…or, in other words, buried beneath this exact location here.

Google Street View

Cool, huh? You can do that with just about any of the ships on this map.

Now every time you walk in the Financial District, you’ll know where a ton of ships are buried right beneath your feet, many of which are still being discovered, even as late as 2014.

Kelly, you, your editor or both, need to take a class in basic English. Your writing and sentence structure are attrocious. “…in addition to what the *shores* of San Francisco used to look like before *it* was altered.” and “It was built on top of (again) with an 11-story building.” Chimps at keyboards could do better.

In the early 70’s, on Fremont and Market Streets, we found a sunken ship with over 320 Chinese skeletons in it. It happened as we suddenly broke through a sunken hull with our heavy digging equipment. The ship was used as a final resting place for Chinese laborers after the ship had been abandon. The other operator, a despicable individual whose name I’ll keep anonymous in case he’s still alive, work along side me, and he was stealing their gold teeth. Eventually an antiquities person caught him and made the idiot give up the gold crowns. Finally, a Chinese Benevolent Society in San Francisco’s Chinatown collected all the remains we could find and reburied them in an all Chinese graveyard in Coma, CA. Coma is a town just south of SF. Its sole purpose is dedicated lands so that all denominations have graveyards. In fact, no one alive lives there including many of my own deceased relatives. Spooky–huh?
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I don’t know that I would be too happy about the fact that so much of San Francisco is built on top of landfills and decaying ship carcasses. It is definitely not “cool” to see the consequences everytime a decent sized earthquake obliterates an old apartment building or fires break out all over the district.

I dug artifacts in that area in the 1970s. Too bad the government has criminalized even breathing the AIR WITHOUT OFFICIAL PERMISSION (which is never granted) It is a control issue. I was told that the archaeologists would rather see artifacts destroyed through construction than “looted” (thus preserved) by hobbiests. Funny. It was the same anti-government mouths proclaiming “stick it to the man” during the 1960s and 1970s. Those same totalitarians are now “The Man”. Want to be an iconoclastic rebel? Support freedom.

What was the matter with saving a peace of History. What would have happened in England if we did not preserve our History. There would be no Tower of London, Mary Rose, HMS Victory and many otheres.Just to give a few.

My grandfather rented an artists studio for $12 a month, his building was named after the ships hull that was used as the foundation. When they tore it down, the Pyramid was built there. Looks like the Niantic was the ship; thanks for the maps & pics!

Super Cool! I remember years back when they pulled intact Champaign from one of the ships. My GGG Grandfather’s office and foundry were at 237 First Street (intersection of First and Clementina). Across the street the Foundry Buildings backed up to the beach – so as to have easy access to sand for the molds. The ships anchored in Yerba Buena Cove are behind the Foundry buildings – The family business was mining engineering. Everything was destroyed in 1906. My GG Grandfsther then moved to Coos County, Oregon to design coal mine shafts. Supplying coal to SF.

Super Cool! I remember years back when they pulled intact Champaign bottles from one of the ships. My GGG Grandfather’s office and foundry were at 237 First Street (intersection of First and Clementina). Across the street the Foundry Buildings backed up to the beach – so as to have easy access to sand for the molds. The ships anchored and moored in Yerba Buena Cove behind the Foundry buildings – The family business was mining engineering. All was destroyed in 1906. My GG Grandfather then moved to Coos County, Oregon to design coal mine shafts. Supplying coal to SF.